Languishing

Wow, this blog is languishing. I guess we've all been busy with the quotidian and have neglected the more delicious luxury of writing. Well, between the lot of us we've had some significant life changes: gained a baby and some new food restrictions, lost some chickens and a dog, undergone all the preliminary paperwork for an adoption. Whew. No wonder our gardens aren't in yet! I hope all of your quotidian days are worshipful. (Doesn't that sounds very spiritual and idealistic some days? Well, they are worshipful to the Lord even if our hearts aren't quite tuned to hear the praise.) While we neglect to write, maybe you would enjoy perusing this website that Danidoodle found: Quotidiana.

I miss my garden.

'And this brings us to the third, and what may be the most important
reason why you should garden. It is the cheapest, healthiest, keenest
pleasure there is. Give me a sunny garden patch in the golden
springtime, when the trees are picking out their new gowns, in all the
various self-colored delicate grays and greens--strange how beautiful
they are, in the same old unchanging styles, isn't it?--give me seeds
to watch as they find the light, plants to tend as they take hold in
the fine, loose, rich soil, and you may have the other sports. And when
you have grown tired of their monotony, come back in summer to even the
smallest garden, and you will find in it, every day, a new problem to
be solved, a new campaign to be carried out, a new victory to win.'

-- F.F. Rockwell

Portuguese Stone Soup

I adapted this from the recipe of the same name on epicurious.com, originally from Bon Appetit, Dec. 1992.

8 cups chicken or vegetable stock
2 cups cooked kidney beans
1 lb. peeled diced boiling potatoes
1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes
1/2 head savoy cabbage, chopped into bite sized pieces
1 lb. turnips, peeled and diced
2 leeks, chopped, rinsed very well to remove sand
2 large carrots, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 bay leaves

Combine all ingredients in a crock pot, and cook on high 2-3 hours, until vegetables are tender. Best if refrigerated overnight and rewarmed the next day.

I served it with rye crisp bread and Emmentaler cheese. Also good with hearty brown bread.